The History of Svintsyan (cont.)

TO SUPPORT AND TO RETURN TO ZION

Rabbi Reines and The Jewish National Fund[13] -- Documents concerning various
monies that were sent from Svintsyan -- Mordkhe Getsl goes to the land of
Israel and buys 5,000 dunam[14] of land --  The House of Jacob goes and we
follow was the Svintsyan motto -- the first ownership of land.

As Rabbi Y. L. Hacohen-Maymon relates in his memoirs concerning the history of
the Mizrakhi Movement, when Rabbi Reines was in Svintsyan, he was
very active in the Return-to-Zion Movement. In those days he was in contact
with the representatives of the Return-to-Zion Movement: Rabbi Tsvi Kalisher of
Teheran and Rabbi Gutmakher of Gridits in connection with the founding of the
Association of Yeshivas in Israel, whose center was then
Frankfort-on-Oder. Rabbi Reines suggested practical ways in which to realize
the thoughts of the Diaspora.
It is not a coincidence that
there were in Svintsyan at that time, that is the 80's of the previous century,
active fund-raisers who were collecting money for the Jewish settlements in
Israel as well as very generous donors. This characterizes the high level and
uniqueness of the kind of people in our city and their approach to the real
problems of the time.
Today it is difficult to
evaluate to what degree Rabbi Reines symbolized the Jewish community of the
city. In fact, it was a reciprocal influence.
We find a letter very
characteristic of Svintsyan in the archives of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem
written on the 4th of October 1885.
The letter reads as follows:

[In Hebrew]

To the Famous, Honored,
Glorified Rabbi Meyerson, who seeks good for his people, our teacher to whom we
are obligated--peace and blessings!

Enclosed please find 62 rubles
that I have put aside donated from our city of
Svintsyan for the purpose of the settlement in Erets Yisroel and we would
appreciate it very much if your eminence would give this money to the
treasurer, Ignats Bornshteyn, and treat it in the same way that you treat other
funds that come to you for the same purpose from different places. In addition
there is the sum of 50 rubles for secure bonds which I will try to gather as
soon as possible.
Many people in our small city
liked the suggestion that the honorable and wise
Mr. Meyerovitz published in the pamphlet about planting vineyards. Three or
four people (among which I am one) were found who wanted to plant three or four
vines in their names, but we didn't know how to go about it. I don't know if
this suggestion has already been acted upon or not, and it awaits the approval
of the esteemed organization.

With Respect and Admiration
Nakhman Gurvitz - Svintsyan

The director of historical
archives, Dr. Yisroel Kloyzner, explained in his citing of this article that
its contents are connected to the plans of Menashe Meyerovitz of Rishon
L'Tzion, who at that time led a multi-branched effort of colonization and
planting of vineyards at the time of the First Immigration.[15]
In the year 1885, Avraham
Solomyak of Svintsyan ( who had been a student at the State Teachers' Institute
in Vilna) also moved to Israel along with the well-known Mikhal Halperin of
Vilna. They were among the first settlers and founders of Gedera, Nes Tziona,
and Yesod Hama'ala.
A few years later, Mordechai
Getsl Gurvitz of Svintsyan also goes [to Palestine]. He and the Vilna group
purchase large tracts of land. M. G. Gurvitz comes back in high spirits and he,
as the town's emissary [to Palestine], is given a gala reception. (
HaMelits, Warsaw, No. 96, May 2, 1891)

[In Hebrew]

Several days before the holiday
of Passover, the wealthy, venerable, Mr. M. G.
Gurvitz returned to our city from his trip to the Holy Land, where he had lived
for 4 months.
Indeed, he didn't travel only
to visit the land, our holy land but also to
place a corner stone there for a settlement for several Jewish families and he
bought 5,000 dunam of land. Then he was happy to return home.
The whole community turned out
to give him an honorable welcome, including the
great scholar Rabbi Pinkhas Rozovsky. The community gave Mr. Gurvitz a letter
of appreciation and blessing from all of the community leaders of the city.
The heart of every person in
the city was full of happiness when they heard
his excited report about the holy land.
After the holy Sabbath, all of
the community leaders got together in the house
of the philanthropic sage, Mr. M. G. Gurvitz and all of them gave him their
blessings. One of the schoolteachers of our city, Reb Sholom HaLevy Epstein,
gave a speech, in excellent Hebrew, about the land of Israel to all those
assembled. His words came straight from his heart and went straight to the
hearts of his audience.

A. D. Lintufsky

The fact that land was bought
through a transplanted Svintsyaner, Mr. Mordechai Getsl Gurvitz, is confirmed
by a correspondent of the Vilna
HaTzefira, No. 44 (1891).
In the above-mentioned
correspondence we find the following details about the land purchase:

Mitskun and Bunimovitch also
traveled to the land of Israel with M. G. Gurvitz
of Svintsyan as representatives of a group of rich Vilna Jews, The Lovers
of Zion, who were in connection with the expert on the legality of the
immigration and the settlements, the engineer Papirmayster of Rishon L'Tzion,
concerning the buying of land.
The following well-known
enlightened men of Vilna were also in touch with this
group: Kapelnitski, Rabinovitch, and Shlosberg. According to the correspondence
it seems that the latter also sent the requested sum: 15 thousand rubles to the
delegation in Yaffo via a bank in Riga which was connected to that erstwhile
settlement.
The purchased land is in the
Sharon Valley on both sides of the Kaneh River.
The Biblical dictionary describes the Kaneh River as follows: The river
is the border between Ephraim and Menashe (Joshua 16:8, 17:8). It is the
largest tributary of the Yarkon River, whose source is in the hills of Ephraim
in the Valley of Makhmatot (a city on the border between the tribes of Menashe
and Ephraim, which is today called Khirbat Tanat, and is located approximately
five kilometers southeast of Shkhem).
The river stretches about 30
kilometers to the west to Jaljilya in the land of
Israel and 7 kilometers further from there through the Wadi Eshkar, until it
joins the Yarkon River near Al-Makhmar. This is the area of Hertsilya-Kfar
Saba.

One can only regret that none
of the Svintsyaners in the settlement knew, until now that is, about the land
bought by the Svintsyaner Mordechai Getsl Gurvitz which is located on the other
side of the Jordan, on the other side of the border which we can't get to in
order to get information about the legacy that the Svintsyaner Lovers of
Zion left.
In the year 1888, Shimon
Matzkin went to Israel. He is the son of Sholom-Yisroel and the brother of
Leah-Sora (my mother). Due to visa difficulties, he remains stuck in
Alexandria, Egypt and settles there. His brothers Khaim and Avram-Moyshe visit
him there, but because of family circumstances and military duties they are
forced to return. (Avram-Moyshe and his family went to live in Israel in the
year 1921--with the third wave of immigration.)
Mordechai Tayts liquidates his
business, sells his brick house in Svintsyan and settles in Jerusalem. (He is
the father of Khaya-Feyge who is the wife of Mendl Ginzberg.) His son, Avram
Meyer Tayts, who then went to Riga, takes part in one of the first Zionist
conferences of the Lovers of Zion which was held in Riga. He was also active in
the Lovers of Zion Movement in Svintsyan.
Getting ready to go are:
Khanon Ginzburg, Ben-Tzion Katz, Kune-Feyge and her father. Some of those
mentioned had already sent their baggage to the Port of Odessa, but the already
mentioned fire in the city was the reason that they remained where they were.
In later years, the following
families moved to Israel: Kovarsky, Templeman, the red-headed shoemaker among
other individuals.
In 1904, Hirsh Yehuda
Kovarsky, the brother of Leybl Bak's wife Malka and of Ben-Tzion Vayskunsky's
wife Tsirl, liquidates his grocery and colonial store on Lintuper Street and
moves to Israel. His son, Moyshe-Yosef, a watchmaker by trade, also packs his
bags, and two years later also moves to Israel with his wife and only son of
seven years old. They settle in Rekhovot. The young Ben-Tzion now lives in Nes
Tziona and now manages agricultural properties and orchards. As he tells it,
when the family came in 1906, his father and his grandfather wanted nothing at
all to do with their previous trades or with other easy means of earning a
living. They fulfilled their goal by learning agriculture on the farms of
Minukha and Nakhl under Eisenberg's guidance. There they took the
first step in the direction that his son continues to go with his sons, who are
the 4th generation from the Svintsyaner Hirsh-Yehuda.
It is worthwhile to note that
Moyshe-Yosef's wife, Khaya, is a sister of Yehuda-Leyb Doydubits's (Ben-David),
one of the Shtrashuns of Vilna.
The Kovarsky family also got
Ben-Tzion Vayskunsky's daughter, Tsivya, to come. (Today her name is Yudevitch
and she lives in Nes Tziona.)

The reception of the erstwhile Rabbi of Svintsyan, Rabbi Moshe-Avigdor Amiel,
now the Chief Rabbi of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, and the reports of this occasion in the
Israeli press, 1935.

HaYesod, 21 Teves 1936:

On the occasion of the reception for the Chief rabbi of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo,
our teacher, the great Rabbi Moyshe Avigdor Amiel:

Rabbi Sh. Y. Zevin

WELCOME!

Today is a holiday for
Tel-Aviv. Today Tel-Aviv welcomes its first chief rabbi, the great scholar
Rabbi Moyshe Avigdor Amiel.
Rabbi Amiel is a well-known
rabbi and not new to our community. For 30 years he's been affiliated with the
rabbinate in important communities in a variety of places in the Diaspora. He
has already succeeded in becoming quietly famous as one of the best rabbis and
not necessarily because in his affiliation with the rabbinate of important
communities.
Rabbi Amiel is among those who
honor the place where they are, not one of those whom the place honors.
Svintsyan, Groybe, and Antwerp
received more from Rabbi Amiel in terms of fame and publicity than he received
from them.

***

Doar Hayom, 21 Teves 1936:

In the city of Svintsyan, a
suburb of Vilna which was always important in the
rabbinic world of Lithuania--Russia, there could always be found great rabbinic
scholars, Rabbi Y. Y. Reines, of blessed memory, and Rabbi Pinkhas Rozovsky, of
blessed memory, and Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel, whom it welcomed in his first
rabbinic position (1905).
The fact that the young rabbi
of only 22 was selected to such an important
position made, at that time, a great impression on the rabbinic world.
In Svintsyan, he founded a
large yeshiva in which more than 100 bright
students studied under him.
While in Svintsyan, he took a
test in secular studies and received his license
to be an official government rabbi.
In 1907, he was called by
Baron Ginsburg to be a candidate for the office of
Chief Rabbi of Petersburg. This was before Rabbi Dovid Katzenelboygen, of
blessed memory, was selected, but there was opposition to him [Rabbi Amiel]
because of his young age. Then Baron Ginsburg said: Rabbi Amiel has the
kind of fault that I myself would wish to have.
Rabbi Amiel participated in
all the world meetings and conferences of the
Mizrakhi Movement that took place after the war [WWI] and was among the keynote
speakers in all the conferences. His speech at the last Lucerne Congress also
made a strong impression, and even many of the non-Jewish newspapers of
Switzerland lauded and praised him. Rabbi Amiel spoke a fluent and rich Hebrew,
but he is also comfortable in the following languages: English, French, German,
Russian, and Polish.

* * *

HaYesod, the 18th of Shvat 1936

Rabbi Kh. F. Tkhursh

OUR RABBI  THE NEW CHIEF RABBI OF TEL-AVIV

The city of Tel Aviv is happy
and excited about the coming of its new rabbi
and teacher. A festive reception was held, sponsored by the representatives of
the community, the mayor's office, public institutions, great rabbis, and
community leaders. This showed how great is the admiration of a variety of
people in Tel Aviv for this important man: His reputation spread in the Jewish
world at large during the course of several decades, in institutions of Torah
and morality, in institutions of [secular] learning, in our community
organizations in Israel, and in the Diaspora.

His devotion to yeshivas, the
teaching of Torah to young children and yeshiva
boys;

Traveling to publicize the redemption of Israel through the spirit of Torah;

Active dedication to erecting
quality institutions to benefit our people and
our country;

Communal Hebrew
activities—these are the golden pages of this spiritual person:
Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel, may he live a good, long life.

He came a great distance from
the city of Svinstyan in Poland to the city of
Tel Aviv. Svinstyan
is a symbol. The famous Rabbi Reines of blessed memory developed the idea of
continuity in the Mizrakhi Movement. From this grew the person who promulgated
the teachings of Rabbi Reines and
then became the famous rabbi in this miraculous Hebrew city.
The first rabbi of Svinstyan
developed the great idea.
The second stood as a leader
to those who carried out the concept. And it was
an honor that he truly had earned  this man who encompassed in his soul
the burning flame of Zion and was totally devoted to action, this man who stood
at the forefront of the rebuilding of the nation. He is the most suitable to
stand and supervise the complete redemption as it is expressed in the motto:
The Land of Israel for the people of Israel according to the Torah of
Israel!
This is not the place to go
into all of the details of the glorious, glowing
personality of this multi-faceted beautiful human being. Suffice it to say that
the great rabbi and scholar, Rabbi Amiel, is known as one of the greatest
rabbis in the world and is one of the most talented rabbis of this generation.
He has earned himself a wonderful and glorious reputation in the world of Torah
scholarship, and he is held in high esteem both by the Mizrakhi and the Aguda
as well as by the Jewish community in general.
He came from the city of
Svinstyan in Poland to the city of Tel Aviv. [He
came] from the city in which Rabbi Reynes, of blessed memory, was teaching
about and promulgating the ideas of the Mizrachi, a return to Zion and the
building of the nation on its own land according to Torah and its commentaries.

The New Beit Hamidrash That Housed Rabbi Amiel's Yeshiva

POLITICAL ZIONISM

Rabbi Rozovsky is the founder of Mizrakhi-- Documents about the
Zionistic activities in the city-- Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel at Zionist
Congresses-- From Svintsyan to Rabbi Harashi in Tel Aviv.

Rabbi Pinkhas Rozovsky, the head of the Jewish Judicial Tribunal in Svintsyan
from 1886 to 1905, did not depart from the usual, well-trodden path of love of
Zion in the city.
Rabbi Rozovsky took part in the
first Zionist Congresses and was elected to the Culture and Education
Committees of the Congress.
Together with Rabbi Reines of
Lida and Reb Leybele of Vilna, Rabbi Rozovsky of Svintsyan led the struggle
against the fanatical rabbis of Khaim Oyzer Grodzensky's group, which branded
political Zionism as being of the Shabbetai Tzvi sect. The latter led an
anti-Zionistic near riot in the name of religion.
Rabbi Rozovsky was among the
first to be involved in the founding of the religious Zionist party
Mizrakhi. At the fourth Zionist Congress, he and Rabbi Reines and
Rabbi Nisenboym establish the fund Exiled from the Holy Land of
Israel, and were very active in the area of Zionistic activities.
The organizations:
Zionist for Zion, Youth for Zion, and The
Resurrection were active in the city among the young people. There were
many educational and enlightening activities, courses in Hebrew, cultural
events, collection of money for the fund to buy land in Israel.
The following are some
confirmed documents and letters from Svintsyan, which can be found in the
archives of the National Committee:

[In Hebrew]

Thursday, the 7th of Teves
1911-- Svintsyan, a suburb of Vilna

To the Central Committee of the
Zionist Organization

Dear Sir:
In answer to your letter of the 15th of Kislev, we are able to answer the
question that you put before us. The answers are as follows:
1) There were 40 bonds in our city in the 13 years after the Congress and 40 in
the 14th year.
2) In the 15th year after the Congress, we received 5 booklets of bonds.
3) In the year 1908, after the Congress, we received 5 booklets of bonds. In
our city, in 1908, collected for the Jewish United Fund the sum of 24 rubles
and 57 kopecks (9 rubles, 57 kopecks
from charity boxes; 15 rubles from [selling] marmalade) and in the year 1908,
we raised the sum of 58 rubles (38 rubles from charity boxes and 20 rubles from
sales). In addition to this, we sent the sum of
106 rubles, 50 kopecks for the benefit of the JUF to be included in a
golden book memorial list of deceased.
4) We sent money to benefit newspapers in Kushta.[16]
5) There are approximately 8 active Zionists in our city.
6) There is Zionist publicity in our city. In the course of the last 2 years,
there were general
meetings. We met in a private synagogue.
7) In general, there was no extreme opposition to the Zionism in our city
(except for a small
group of fanatics, whom we don't count). It was possible to make our city a
completely Zionist city.
If an orator or a good organizer were to visit our city, he would be able to
influence the citizens of our
city (and also the young people) with the force of his personality. Our people
respond with love to the
work being done in the Land of Israel. Our people participated in the buying
of land in Israel. Cultural work will continue to be done among the youth,
including the teaching of Jewish history twice a week
to groups of young boys and girls. The Zionists took an active part in Talmud
Torah Institutes. We circulated Kadima, the publication of our organization. We are trying to gain subscribers for
our daily Hebrew newspaper. In our city, we receive these newspapers:
HaZman , HaMelits, HaTzefirah, HaOlam, Razsvet, Moledet V'khinukh.
The 10th Zionist Congress, made
a big impression, especially because of the environment of
peace that was created during it. According to our opinion, it was necessary
to pay special attention to elevating the Zionist ideas among the general
population.
Concerning the money that our
organization was supposed to bring in, we are requesting that
the Central Committee reduce the amount.
Indeed, we give the work of the
Central Committee much respect, but the income of our
organization is small. Most of the Zionists in our city are people from whom
it is impossible to get a
large amount of money. We will send 5 rubles in the near future.
In conclusion, we send
blessings to the new Central Committee and wish them success in their work for
the redemption of our people and our own land.

[Written] with the blessing of the local committee in Svintsyan

In addition to this detailed
letter about the state of Zionism in the city, we find a variety of letters
from [the Zionist youth groups] Zionistic Zion and The Resurrection concerning
financial problems and reports from the youth of the city to the central office
of their area in Grodno--under the guidance of the well-known Leyb Yafo.
The original letters were
written by Zalman Svirsky, the youngest of the Svirsky brothers, and: Moyshe,
Yosef, and Leyb (Tel Aviv).
The following letters in the
form of postcards can be found in the archive in Jerusalem:

[In Hebrew]

Postcard 1: Dear Sir: I simply ask you to send us, at the address below,
clear addresses to which we
can send money and letters. We will shortly send you 15 rubles and 15 kopecks
collected by 31 members.

With Blessings, Zalman Svirsky - Svintsyan in the Province of Vilna

Postcard 2: Dear Sir: In addition to the sum of 15 rubles and 50 kopecks, I
ask that you acknowledge receipt of the money.

With Blessings, Zalman Svirsky - July 2, 1913

Postcard 3: Svintsyan the 24th
of Tammuz

We are very curious about the fact that you did not receive the 50 rubles and
50 kopecks, money
for the benefit of the organization that was sent to Lifa in Grodno. It's been
2 weeks since we sent the money and you repeatedly write that you haven't
received anything from us.
We request that you check into this matter and let us know when you receive the
money.

With Blessings, Zalman Svirsky

The previous 3 postcards were mailed to this address: Grodno, Mr.
Jack--stationery store.

Postcard 4: The money was received, but we didn't know its purpose. July 13,
1913

This answer was received from
Grodno at this address: Zalman Svirsky--Svintsyan

During the period from 1905 -
1913, the head of the Jewish Judicial tribunal in Svintsyan was Rabbi Moshe
Avigdor Amiel. Since he was in the city, he was very active on behalf of the
Zionist cause. From Svintsyan, he was sent as a delegate to the Zionist
Congresses. He also took part in the Mizrakhi convention in Amsterdam. He
became more aware of his abilities, the ones which enabled him to become the
Rabbi of Antwerp in 1913.
Shortly thereafter, he visited
the land of Israel and settled in Tel Aviv. There he held the position of
Chief Rabbi of the city until his death in Tel Aviv in 1945.

THE JEWISH SOCIALIST WORKERS' PARTY, THE BUND

The workers' parties in the city--The revolution of 1905 and the reaction in the city-- Arkady Kramer, the Bund founder and theorist .

By a short overview of all of the original institutions of the Enlightenment in Svintsyan, from the Lovers of Zion Zionism to the time of the First World War, we have given the more civil side of the story. The workers' and proletariat's side of Svintsyan deserves its own chapter:
The social unrest and workers' problems, which surfaced in Tsarist Russia after the assassination of the Tsar, did not bypass our city. The various new [political] movements and parties that arose among Jews in that period also reached us.
[For example] S. R., S. D., Anarchists, Folkists, just plain Socialists, and especially the Bund, whose theorist and one of its founders was Arkady Kramer, born in Svintsyan in 1865.
The strikes, demonstrations, and revolutionary struggles in the year 1905 also encompassed the workers in the workshops and factories of Svintsyan.
The Jewish workers along with Gentile workers took part in illegal community gatherings which took place outside of the city and in the woods.
Sashke, the Russian Pope's son, led one of these communal demonstrations in 1905. The bailiff's daughter, a teacher in the municipal school, led the school children in the demonstration in which Jewish workers also participated.
Illegal Jewish workers' gatherings took place in the synagogues. In the years 1904 and 1905, there was organized in the city a Jewish Defense organization. It was led by the student Julian Brumberg, the son of the leather factory owner. Shmuel Sarsky led the tobacco workers. Fayvke and Avraham Gertman led the shoemakers. Ritsman and the yameld led the tailors.
The intellectual circles led the work of the Enlightenment. Miran Taraseysky, Sonya Epstein, the daughter of Tavroginsky, and others were active organizers. They were always in contact with the center of the Movement in the city, with the Russian progressive circles.
Inspections, searches for illegal literature and weapons were the results of both the open [legal] and the illegal activities in the city.
The response to all of this was a strengthening of the underground activities of the unfortunate and exploited classes and also an increase of emigration to Western Europe and across the ocean.
This situation lasted until the First World War.

Arkady Kramer, Founder and Theorist

Arkady Kramer was born in Svintsyan in the year 1865.
His father, Yoysef Kramer, was a teacher in the Circle School (a district school) in Svintsyan.[17] He was both a member of the Enlightenment Movement and a religious Jew as well. He also taught children in his home.
After teaching, Reb Yoysef used to study a page of Gemara for his own edification. He also studied physics and geometry. In addition, he also very much enjoyed reading a book of secular literature.
Reb Yoysef gave the same education to his children, with whom he enjoyed taking trips outside the city in his free time. During these outings he would talk to them of everything and got them interested in the plants and flowers of the fields and woods around Svintsyan.
Pati, Arkady's wife, mentioned these things in her memoirs when she wrote of her husband and his family.
Arkady was the youngest of six children in the family. While he was still a child, two of his sisters were studying in Petersburg and a brother was a student in the Teachers' Institute in Vilna. And little Arele[18] grew up in poverty and privation, because his father's salary as a teacher [in the Circle School] (23 rubles) and his earnings as a teacher of little children [in his home] barely covered the necessities of life and the tuition for the children. The family lived in poverty.
Until he was 12 years old Aron (Arkady) lived with his parents in Svintsyan. He attended the Circle School and graduated.
Arkady used to say what a milestone it was in his life when he graduated the school in Svintsyan and began to prepare himself to go to Vilna to take the entrance exams for the gymnasium. That's when his first pair of new shoes were made for him. They were made big so that he could grow into them. He also got a new hat, so big that his head got lost in it. He was not very happy with these items, because everyone in the school in Svintsyan made fun of the way he dressed since he never had a pair of shoes that were whole or a presentable garment.
In his impoverished condition, Arkady concentrated on his studies. He lived in a corner of the hovel of one of his poor uncles and subsisted on packages that his mother, Sheyndl, used to send him from Svintsyan. Some time later, he also earned a bit of spending money by giving private lessons.
Arkady got his political training in Petersburg as a student in the Technological Institute attaching himself to the Polish S.R.F. Proletariat, which was a sister party to the Russian party called The People's Will.
In the year 1889, he was arrested for his activities in this illegal party and was sentenced to 6 months in jail and 2 years [parole] under police supervision. His family had recently moved to Vilna, and Arkady joined them there.
In spite of police supervision, Arkady did not cease his political activities. [In fact] he soon became the leader of the Group of Jewish Socialist Democrats in Russia. This group theoretically and practically created the political framework and impetus that led to the founding of the Bund under the name: General Jewish Workers' Bund[19] (1897).
Arkady Kramer was the central figure of the financially successful pioneer group which gave the first Jewish Socialist workers' movement, the Bund, its soul.
We know that in the 70's and 80's of the 19th century, there already existed small Socialist circles of Jewish workers, but it was necessary to form the authoritative framework which would encapsulate their ideals and create the Jewish Socialist Mass Movement.
When Arkady began working among the Jewish masses, he never imagined that he was doing not only important Socialist work but also important Jewish nationalistic work which Zionism had awakened among Jews and which was also appreciated in Bundist circles.
The Bund adopted a nationalistic Jewish program which expressed itself in the Bundist Organizations form. Certain important issues presented themselves to this group of Jewish Socialists, for example: 1) the question of language, 2) Jewish disenfranchisement, 3) the individuality of the Jewish workers who labored in small workshops.
At that time, the general Russian Socialist-Democratic Workers Movement strongly protested against complicating the workers' question among Jews and also against the special Jewish content.
In spite of the fact that Arkady worked with the general Movement--The Russian S. D. Party--he also showed himself to be an accomplished Jewish theorist. He was a man of the people with an acute sense of reality, so he dealt with the demands of the time and made the Bund an important organization for Jewish intellectuals as well as the tailors and shoemakers and other Jewish artisans.
In the Jewish artisans, the Jewish intelligentsia saw folk masses of whom it hadn't known before, and they placed themselves at the head of this class in order to defend their Socialist and nationalistic interests.
Aron Kramer, Arkady, the Russified son of the Svintsyan proponent of the Enlightenment, Yoysef Kramer, was one of those who recognized the Jewish masses and placed himself at their service in their daily struggle.
Arkady developed rich political activities for the Party and became the backbone of the Bund. In addition, Arkady was considered one of the most prominent figures of the Socialist Movement at that time in Russia, Poland, and Lithuania.
Arkady took part in International Socialist Congresses (Amsterdam, Bern, London and so on).
The founder of the Bund was always the honored chairman of the presidium at all the Greater Polish conferences of the Party.
During the First World War, he stayed in France, where he worked as an engineer (on the French subway system).
In the year 1921, he returned to the cradle of the Party--to Vilna. He once again became active and was the Party's elected representative of the masses in the Jewish community of the city.
He worked as a teacher of mathematics in the Jewish Technological School and in the Vilna Jewish Teachers' Seminary. (He died on Sept. 20th, 1935 in Vilna.)

----------------------------------------------

13. The main objective of the Jewish National Fund was to buy land from the Arabs in order to build more settlements in Israel. Trans.Back
14. A land measurement used in Palestine and Israel equal to .22 acre. Trans.Back
15. The First Immigration was between 1882 and 1904. A.H.Back
16. This used to be the capitol of the Ottoman Empire. Trans. Back
17. This was an elementary school. Trans.Back
18. Aron was Arkady's Yiddish name. Trans.Back
19. "Bund" is translated as "organization" but is generally known as the "Bund." Trans.Back

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc.
and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of fulfilling our
mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and
destroyed Jewish communities. This material may not be copied,
sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be
reserved by the copyright holder.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification. JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.